Cayley
Lunar Orbiter 4 image
Coordinates4°00′N 15°06′E / 4.0°N 15.1°E / 4.0; 15.1
Diameter14 km
Depth3.1 km
Colongitude345° at sunrise
EponymArthur Cayley
The crater area in a Selenochromatic format Image (Si)
Oblique view from Apollo 15, showing Cayley (center), Ariadaeus (bright, left foreground), D'Arrest (left background), and Whewell (right)

Cayley is a small lunar impact crater that is located in a lava-flooded region to the west of Mare Tranquillitatis. It was named after the 19th-century English mathematician Arthur Cayley.[1] It lies to the northwest of the smaller crater De Morgan and the larger D'Arrest. West and slightly north of Cayley is Whewell, a crater of about the same dimensions. To the north is a linear rille designated Rima Ariadaeus, which follows a course to the east-southeast.

Description

This is a circular, bowl-shaped formation with a small interior floor at the midpoint. (Small being relative to the overall diameter, as it occupies about one-fourth the total cross-section.) The sloping interior walls are relatively light in hue, having a higher albedo as the surrounding terrain. However it is not nearly as bright as the slightly larger crater Dionysius to the east-southeast, and lacks a ray system.

The smooth, rolling plains to the east of this crater are called the Cayley Formation. It is somewhat similar to the lunar maria, but has a slightly higher albedo and is overlapped at the eastern edge by the Mare Tranquillitatis. Lunar scientists suspect that this plain may have resulted from deposits of ejecta from the formation of large impact basins such as Mare Imbrium or Mare Orientale.[2] (The most likely source is the Mare Imbrium impact basin to the northwest.)

Cayley is a crater of Eratosthenian age.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Cayley (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
  2. ^ Lunar Light Plains Deposits (Cayley Formation)--A Reinterpretation of Origin. E. C. T. Chao, L. A. Soderblom, J. M. Boyce, Don E. Wilhelms, and Carroll Ann Hodges. Abstracts of papers submitted to the Fourth Lunar Science Conference, March 5-8, 1973.
  3. ^ The geologic history of the Moon. USGS Professional Paper 1348. By Don E. Wilhelms, John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1987. Table 12.2.

External links

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Craters on the Moon: C–F
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